Judo champion tackles fan accused of hurling a bottle at 100m final

A MAN who allegedly hurled a beer bottle at Olympic champion Usain Bolt as the sprint champion took his marks for the start of the 100-metre final was hauled into court yesterday having already received “poetic justice” from an outraged judo champion.

Married father-of-two Ashley Gill-Webb is accused of hurling the bottle into Bolt’s lane as the Olympic Stadium fell silent for the start of the eagerly awaited London 2012 blue-ribbon event.

The plastic missile missed the sprinter but seconds later the 34-year-old vending machine operative from South Milford, near Leeds, fell foul of Dutch world judo champion and Games bronze medallist Edith Bosch, who was in the stadium at the time.

The fuming 32-year-old martial arts expert delivered a hefty blow to Gill-Webb’s back before security staff jumped into the crowd and pulled him away.

Games chairman Lord Coe said he was not suggesting vigilantism, but it was actually “poetic justice” that he happened to be sitting near a judo champion.

He added: “Throwing a bottle on to the field of play is unacceptable. It’s not just unacceptable at an Olympic Games but at any sporting event and anybody who does that will be removed.

There is zero tolerance for anything like that

Lord Coe

“There is zero tolerance for anything like that.”

Yesterday Gill-Webb appeared before Stratford Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded not guilty to a charge of using words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress under section 5 of the Public Order Act.

Wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan “Veni, Vidi, Vino” he was told he will face a half-day trial on September 3.

He was granted bail on condition that he does not enter any Olympic venue, including the whole of the Olympic Park, and that he resides at his home address with the exception of the evening before his trial.

As her husband appeared in court there was no sign of Gill-Webb’s wife, NHS receptionist Angela, at their £106,000 home.

Gill-Webb, a graduate of the University of Hull, was pictured just weeks ago alongside his son with an Olympic torch after it had passed through Leeds.

On his Facebook page he also lists Usain Bolt as one of his favourite athletes alongside former Liverpool FC striker Ian Rush and Team GB gold medal ace Jessica Ennis.

He was spotted by locals in his home village as he was sporting a jacket emblazoned by the sponsors of the pub football team he played for four years ago, Queen O’T’Owd Thatch. The landlord and landlady of the pub, Paul and Christine Stobbart, remembered Gill-Webb as someone who would only visit the pub a couple of times a year and was always scrabbling for change to buy a shandy.

Gill-Webb has lived with his wife Angela and two children, Alfie, nine, and Louis, five, in a new-build three-bed townhouse since they were built five years ago.

Local British Legion barman Neil Darton, 31, where Gill-Webb now drinks said: “He’s an okay guy, he’s never caused any trouble here and we will quite often have a chat. He’s not a trouble causer.” But judo ace Bosch told followers on Twitter about her dramatic intervention before Sunday night’s final. She wrote: “A drunken spectator threw a bottle onto the track! I HAVE BEATEN HIM... unbelievable.”

Yesterday she added: “He did make me miss the final, and I am very sad about that. But I just cannot understand how someone can do something like that.”